[GnT-V overexpression in human hepatocarcinoma cells affects its migration and expression of cell adhesion molecules]

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase V (GnT-V) overexpression on the migration of 7721 cells and its mechanism. The abilities of migration of both 7721 cells transfected with GnT-V cDNA and 7721 cells transfected with pcDNA3 was detected, the expressions of integrin and E-cadherin which are important adhesion molecules on surface membrane and closely related to the abilities of invasion and metastasis. Cell migration abilities were measured by the agarose drop explant method. Flow cytometric analysis (FACS) was applied to determine the relative amounts of integrin alpha 5 and beta 1 subunits on the cell surface while RTPCR was carried out to determine the expression of their mRNA. The expression of E-cadherin was examined by the immunocytochemical ABC method. Western blot analysis was carried out to examine the expression of beta-catenin. GnT-V overexpression enhanced evidently the migration ability of 7721 cells and increased the amount of integrin alpha 5 subunit to 2.9 times of that of control while the amount of beta 1 subunits was not significantly changed. Besides, the expressions of E-cadherin and beta-catenin were enhanced at different levels in GnT-V/7721 cells compared with mocked. The results suggested that the overexpression of GnT-V related to the production of N-linked sugar chains could promote the expressions of integrin, E-cadherin and beta-catenin on 7721 cells so that the migration ability of tumor cells was enhanced.